Visual Thinking for Business - Make Your Point

In today’s business environment, your success depends on being seen, heard and remembered. Integrate visual communication elements, command attention and master complexity in business meetings and presentations.

About this course

Attention is the most valuable currency in today’s dynamic and fast business environment. How can you clearly communicate complex ideas and project plans? How can you generate interest and captivate your audience? The answer lies in "Visual Thinking", a growing trend that originates from Silicon Valley and the Stanford D-School: practitioners as well as researchers have realised that the more complex, dynamic and electronic the business environment becomes, the more important it is to be able to master such complexity via visualisation in meetings, presentations and discussions.

This is the first public online course offered by the top-tier business school, the WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management. The Economist places WHU's MBA programme at #6 in the world and the Financial Times calls it the #1 MBA and Masters in Management programme in Germany. The regular course is one of the highest student-rated courses in the WHU MBA programme. The course is taught by the award-winning Prof. Dr. Christoph Hienerth, the Chair of the Entrepreneurship and New Business Development at WHU.

By the end of this course, you will master two very important tools:

Elementary drawing skills

You will learn to create representative objects and artefacts as well as people and characters. This includes:
• Revealing essential problems everyone faces in drawing and overcoming your fears
• How to draw and visualise simple forms, people, perspective and the third dimension
• Making drawing a daily habit and a simple routine

Visual presentation skills in the business setting

You will learn visual structuring methods so that you can transfer elementary drawing skills to the business environment and explain complex concepts with the common language of visualisation. This includes:
• Visual thinking and communication techniques
• The visual setting in meetings (flip-charts, whiteboards, blackboards, etc.)
• Some psychological aspects of communication between the presenter and the audience
• Essential visualisation tools for business
• The option to take your skills to the next level using free electronic drawing software

Who should take this course?

The course learnings can be applied to many expertise levels and sectors. Both inexperienced and experienced presenters and workers in the business world, even creative designers and artists who want to develop a business edge, have a lot to gain from the course material and lectures. More specific groups include:Team Leads and Managers
• Communicate strategies more clearly by visualising key take-aways
• Improve meetings and presentations by using whiteboard sketches rather than boring power-point slides
• Reduce the time needed to create strategic documentsSales Agents and Account Managers
• Create unique sales documents in less time
• Give presentations that stand out and make sure your leads remember you
• Be able to create engaging material on-the-fly and less dependent on prepared documentsStrategy, Business and Product Developers
• Simplify and explain complex systems by using visual structures
• Improve your ability to sketch and structure new ideas and concepts
• Take on new information and quickly integrate them into your concepts

What is included in this course?

Upon completion of this course, you will receive :
• A Statement of Participation

In addition, this course offers flexible time management. With a workload of 12-16 hours, the suggested course length is about 4 weeks. If you can’t spare 3-4 hours a week or would rather finish the course faster, you can do so as well. Take as little or as much time as you need and complete the course at your own pace.

Want to discover the online learning experience?

Course instructors

Christoph Hienerth

This course will be guided by Prof. Dr. Hienerth's extensive knowledge and teaching experience in the business field. His portfolio includes:

• Current Chair of Entrepreneurship and New Business Development at the WHU
• Extensive Educational & Professional Background
• Research Publications in Leading Journals
• Prestigious Teaching Awards
• International Corporate Projects